It’s good to be king
And in San Francisco, that means being a pedestrian.
In a victory for human rights and really slow-moving people, the San Francisco traffic codes favor the pedestrian every time.
Step out into the street and you own it. Vehicles are required to stop and yield for pedestrians any time, any place. Power to the litte people!
This is quite a change from Texas, where we received bonus points for hitting pedestrians. For a complete guide to the score-keeping, visit www.dps.tx.gov.
- As an eager pedestrian, I love the (false) sense of safety.
- As a bike rider, I love the bike lanes and the signs that say "yield to pedestrians and bicyclists." On some streets, bicyclists get the whole right lane.
- As a driver, I yield, bless and curse.
In all three guises, I try to remember how it feels to be the other person.
I don't always do that in life -- remember how it feels to be the other person. Sometimes, I'm so stuck in my own head, focused on my own goals, that the "other" becomes very separate from me -- even worse, an obstacle.
This bothers me on several counts, mostly because Jesus made two things really clear:
- we're to treat our neighbor with actions of lovingkindness and courtesy, and
- everyone is our neighbor.
He also adjoured us to "clothe the naked."
I wonder what the group of naked people down on our beach would do if I brought them some of Richard's grey slacks and said, "Jesus told me to clothe the naked."
Jesus suffers a lot of grief on account of people like me.
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